The National College Resources Foundation will be bringing their Black College Expo to Sacramento State on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

The event will be held in the University Union and is open to Black high school juniors and seniors and community college students from the Sacramento area. Admission is free.

This will be the second time Sac State holds the expo this calendar year, as the expo scheduled for fall 2018 got pushed to January of this year because of campus closures due to the Camp Fire according to Charles Cole, the senior director of admissions and outreach at Sac State. 

Students at the event will get the opportunity to take advantage of various academic resources and learn an idea of what Sac State and other California State Universities, Universities of California, community colleges and  Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have to offer for Black students.

Theresa Price, founder and executive director of the Black College Expo, said that the purpose of the expo is to provide students with the resources needed to receive an education.

“The Black College Expo brings together families and empowers students to pursue their education,” Price said. “It’s a one-stop-shop for students to get whatever it is they need.”

Resources provided to students attending include immediate college acceptances, on-the-spot scholarships, financial aid and college application help. Application fees will be waived for students who apply at this event. 

There will also be seminars, campus tours and one-on-one meetings with representatives from over 50 colleges throughout the day.

Sac State students and faculty will be volunteering during the event to make sure incoming students feel welcome and informed about the different resources Sac State, in particular, has to offer to its students.

“Saturday will allow Black Sac State students an opportunity to be leaders and positively influence those who look like them and who may have felt underrepresented,” Cole said. 

Cole said that having the Expo on the same day as the Causeway Classic will influence the excitement in Sac State students.

“We’ll also be having the Causeway classic reception, where the visiting students from the Expo will get a chance to watch the game and intermingle with Black students from both Sac State and Davis,” he said.

Last semester’s Expo had a turnout of over 3,000 students and the same number is expected for Saturday according to Marcellene Watson-Derbigny, the associate vice president for the Educational Opportunity Program at Sac State.

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Watson-Derbigny said that the Black College Expo is inspirational to her.

“One of the things that’s empowering about going to the expo is that you get a chance to see other people pursuing similar goals that you have,” Watson-Derbigny said. “You also get inspired by seeing the African American community and their desire to want to improve their lives through education.”

Those interested in attending are encouraged to register.